TooQualified&over40

Fortunately, I have never made a med error in years of nursing, but teaching is the way to improve this system, not self-reporting. I do not want to sound harsh, but never report something that did not happen. You can explain to a Nurse Educator or a Clinical Nurse Specialist about the potential situation, but do not blame yourself. The Nurse Educator or CNS should utilize your "concern" over the system and potential for errors as a teaching tool, but never blame yourself. If you do, you are opening a large can of worms and you must be fairly new to nursing because nurses predominantly do not support other nurses. If you are ever reported to the State Board--they are like wolves waiting to devour you, according to an attorney friend of mine. Take the issue to an educator who can hold a class on preventing errors and be the "good" nurse who is concerned about potential mistakes and saw the need for a teaching opportunity. Your manager will praise you instead of blame you for something that did not happen. I have been an RN/APN for 30 years and cringe at the number of good nurses that I have seen get disciplined or it show up on an evaluation negatively for reporting near-misses. I have seen hundreds of nurses drug tested or even accused of mental issues for self-reporting. I have seen the results of horrific errors over time from physicians to nurses to anyone in patient care and drawing attention to yourself is not the way. Prevention through education, initiating a committee to improve the system, etc., is the way. The person who talks about the culture of safety has never experienced the wolves. Explain to a preceptor, CNS, nurse educator etc., and let this person do the appropriate teaching to prevent potential med errors. Do not blame yourself for a system that does not work. I am not saying do nothing, but just saying advise an educator of the potential problem and explain that you want to help others to not make an error. If the system does not change and you feel it is unsafe, then anonymously notify Joint Commission. I have reported hundreds of errors in my day, but anonymously as nobody will stand with you if you point out a poor system and it could be punitive against you........ridiculous, but true. Hold your head high and be thankful that no error occurred, but you will find yourself very unpopular if you begin complaining about "how things are done", especially to a manager who is wanting his/her unit to reflect their good name. It's a joke and a game. I have turned in so many unsafe people, including physicians, but they never knew who did it. Systems, policies, and protocols get changed, but I just laugh on my way home knowing I did cause change for the better and for the safety of human lives, but not at my expense. Protect your patients and yourself. Find yourself an experienced mentor that you admire and trust and talk things over with this person often. Your manager is usually not your friend, nor mentor. Good luck and may God bless you for watching out for the safety of patients. BUT YOU CAN STILL WATCH OUT FOR THE PATIENT anonymously. You would be shocked at how many things I have had changed from the lack of a view for critical care patients to the quality of the air in the facility (OSHA helped out on the air quality and we all stopped getting upper respiratory infections also). No-one knew who reported these things. Now, I just sit back and giggle under my breath as hospitals spend their money caring for the patients instead of planting flowers around the doctor's parking lot. I have nothing against physicians/married a good one. Take care.